Open the Software Manager (it should be under Menu>System>Software Manager, or hunt around for it) and in that program, search for "nicotine" Then it should be as simple as selecting the Nicotine entry and clicking "install"
if that doesn't work open the terminal (Menu>Accessories>Terminal, or maybe it's in Menu>System>Terminal) type the following commands, one after the other:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nicotine-team/stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nicotine
You'll need to fill in your password and probably hit "yes" a few times to install some additional software that nicotine needs to run now Nicotine should be installed
Run Nicotine from the Program Menu and proceed to the next section
On Windows we're stuck with an older version (unless you want to to learn how to compile from source), but it seems to work fine on my PC
Go to https://sourceforge.net/projects/nicotine-plus/ and click on the big green button. WARNING BUT FIRST READ ON WARNING I have ad-blocker, so I'm gonna go on a tangent here:
Most websites that offer free downloads to things have ads that are big "Download!" buttons, and sometimes they actually look more professional than the legitimate button!!!! I have been on the internet for a very long time and even I have clicked on the wrong button in the past year.
OK so hover your mouse over that button, and make sure that at the bottom of your window it says "https://sourceforge.net/projects/nicotine-plus/files/latest/download" before you actually click.
run the installer once it downloads, and install it to the default location.
Run Nicotine from the Start Menu
Allow access on your network. Personally I don't use a VPN when I do this, so I allow access on public as well as private networks. You should probably follow folks' advice on using a VPN. And send me a copy of their instructions because I still haven't figured out which service I should pay for _;;
Now continue to the next section
Come up with a username and password. Honestly, if you forget either of them, it won't matter. If you run SoulSeek on multiple devices you may want to use the same username, but all that does is let people identify your account across devices (for instance, if they want to be your friend, or check out what files you are sharing to the network)
Next you need to open ports on your router. These instructions are different depending on your router, so click on the button "Check my port (opens in your webbrowser)" and follow the port forwarding guide they link to. Let me know if you need further help on this and we can walk through it.
Next you'll set your download and upload folders. You should share your stuff! I'm not an expert but I consider this to be relatively safe. Some people refuse to share files with users who don't share anything themselves. The social environment on SoulSeek it interesting, with some people who are absolute jerks (and have lots of rare music that they WILL NOT share unless you offer them an equal number of completely unique, rare music that they want), and then most people don't really care about any of that politics.
The default download folder is hidden in your user configuration directories, so you should change it to a better location.
If you're like me, you keep your music organized in a very particular way. I keep an "inbox" folder for everything I download and a "sorted" folder that I move them to once I've re-tagged and renamed the files.
So, for your download folders:
On Linux, I'd say something like /home/username/Music/SoulSeek-Downloads
On Windows, something like C:\Users\username\Music\SoulSeek-Downloads`
For your upload folders, I personally reccomend sharing wherever you normally keep your MP3s. you can include your download folder as well. Or maybe you're not like me, and you'll just keep everything in one folder for downloading and sharing.
Nicotine starts with the chatroom tab open. You can be social on here if you want to, but it's entirely optional. I've never done it.
To close all of these extra tabs, right click each one and select "- Hide"
Type in a search term and it will return any file whose filename or directoryname includes those terms.
I think that the default sort order is how quickly you'll be able to download the file, and then sorted by directory. You'll see that some results are gray and some are black. Black files, you can start downloading immediately. Gray files, there are other people already downloading from that user, so you will have to wait in line until they have an available download slot.
It's fine to download either of these, but keep in mind that you'll have to leave the program running to make sure that you download anything that's queued.
I personally download whole albums. Almost everyone keeps their files organized in one folder per album, so maximize the window so that you can read the "Directory" line for each file. To download an album, choose a file in that album and right click on it. Select "Download containing folder(s)"
Let's say you found a user who's sharing something you really like, and so you want to check out what else they have. It's a good way to find similar music, or even new bands you've never heard of!
Right click on a file's line and navigate to User > [username] > Browse files Now go into the User Browse tab. You'll see two main panels: a directory tree on the left, and the files inside the selected directory on the right. Some people have their music sorted like a reasonable human being. If you're lucky, they have their music sorted in a way that makes sense to you. Once you've found something you want to check out, right click the folder (to download all of it), or a specific file or files, to download them. You navigate to Download > Download file(s) or Download directory just like before
Let's say you've found 4 or 5 users who have really great taste, and tens thousands of songs! You want to come back and browse their library next time you have the chance. Right click on a file, user, or whatever is contextually appropriate for the tab you're on. Select User > [username] > Add user to list
Now that person is in your buddy list. If you chat with people on soulseek, you can use the buddy list like a regular IM service. Personally, I just use it to bookmark cool accounts so that I can remember to browse their library more.
Remember that, since this is peer-to-peer, users can log off at any time! They might log off while you're downloading from them, and you'll have to wait until later to finish. So, you may find this useful to keep track of people.
Entirely optional, but you can make a list of things you like and dislike on your Interests tab. These can be genres and bands, so that people can get an idea of if they want to share with/from you, or they can just be a personality bio. I think that back in the day, the community was more strict about filling this out. My sense lately is that most people don't care.
Some people consider it bad form to download more than 2 or 3 albums at a time. I haven't really encountered it in recent years, but you still should keep this in mind. Also just to make things go faster, consider downloading different albums from different users if more than one person has it in the search results.
Remember to have your own files available for upload! If you're starting from scratch, just make your downloads folder available.
There are some other things you can do, like limit your upload speed or upload slots (the amount of files/users that can download from you at a time) but again, unless you really do notice it impacting your internet, this shouldn't be an issue on broadband.
Soulseek was originally made for music sharing (I think) but naturally there's no rule that files have to be audio. You can find a lot of ebooks and other stuff on here as well. I'll let you explore that on your own.
I think that that was everything. Let me know if there's anything else. I have some screenshots that I took to go along with this file. I'll turn it into a nice webpage and send it on once I've edited it.
(c) Franky